Letters, Week of June 12, 2014

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To The Editor:Re “Pier 40 M.O.U. is still M.I.A., but suit could appear soon” (news article, May 29):

If Gale Brewer hasn’t seen the agreement, that means her reps on the Hudson River Park Trust board of directors haven’t seen it. And you’ve got to wonder how the Trust’s staff has authority to sign such an agreement without consulting the board.

The agreement was not on any of the Trust board public agendas before or since the agreement was said to have been signed.

F.Y.I., the mayor also has representatives on the board, as does the governor. The current Trust board members for the mayor and Manhattan borough president are holdovers from the previous administration, but should still be accountable to the current office holders and the citizens.Nicole Vianna

CGBG was place to be

To The Editor:Re “Karen Kristal, 88, stern partner in CBGB with her ex, Hilly” (obituary, June 5):

My band the Beatniks From Mars were always treated well at CBGB by Karen and Hilly. Even though we did not have a following to speak of, we were booked constantly. In fact, we recorded most of our songs and videos there and felt is was our home away from home.

Other bars were, well, bars, and we enjoyed playing there. However, CBGB was the center of our lives at the time, and the experience is something that none of us will ever forget.

God, I miss it all. Rest in peace, Hilly and Karen. Long live CBGB!Lawrence White

A day in the life

To The Editor:So it is now 2 a.m. and I have had my one hour of sleep, having been awakened once again by the loud music and crowd noise from a local club, revving motorcycles, car radios, delivery trucks going to the supermarket, garbage trucks. I call 311, the Sixth Precinct and the local club to complain.

At 5 a.m., I give up, get up and face the day. I am showered and dressed and ready to go to my doctor’s appointment. But of course Access-A-Ride does not show up, so I miss my appointment. After using more of my monthly cell phone minutes calling A.A.R. and its car-service subcontractor, I pick up my land line and make fruitless complaint calls to A.A.R. So I write letters to A.A.R. and local elected officials.

Ready to do chores, I leave the house, cane in hand, then wait for an elevator longer than I should, because one elevator has been out in my building for almost a year.

I go toward Bleecker St., having maneuvered my way through the broken Washington Square Village driveway. I attempt to cross the street, watching carefully for bikes going the wrong way.

Hooray! I am on the other side of the street! I dodge cell phone users who can’t see me and others who do not think the old gal is walking quickly enough, so they slap her with their backpacks as they pass.

I am schlepping down Bleecker, or what is left of it, with so many store closings. I do my chores, reverse my destination, say a prayer for my safe return, and head home.

Back at home. I begin my real job — e-mails, phone calls, letters to comrades in the Washington Square South Citizens Action Committee and fellow residents and members of the Washington Square Village Tenants Association, calls to my aging-in-place posse members to see what indignities they suffered since I last spoke with them.

Now I will settle down and watch the Yankees lose again. And then some recliner time before bed and dreams of a better day tomorrow.

Really?Judith Chazen Walsh

More N.Y.U. spin

To The Editor:Re “N.Y.U. rumors” (Scoopy’s Notebook, May 29):

Philip Lentz, like his employer, New York University, uses his own interpretation of the court decision to justify whatever he seeks to justify. And if the appointed N.Y.U. faculty working group’s decision not to put retail stores in the academic “Zipper” Building is not what Mr. Lentz and N.Y.U. President John Sexton want, then why was that group formed? All of which just shows how far N.Y.U. will go to get what it wants.

N.Y.U. may present a ULURP application, make a promise, then break it, try to steal public park areas, receive an adverse court decision, yet still believe it has the right to do whatever it wants despite the law.

’Tain’t so, Mr. Lentz. Because the entire nature of the N.Y.U. 2031 ULURP plan has changed, a new ULURP should then be presented. And certainly the change of zoning from residential to commercial in our neighborhood should not be reapproved.Sylvia Rackow

Petrosino purgatory

To The Editor:Re “Rolling on the river: Focus on speeders and joggers” (news article, June 5):

Could we get some enforcers over here at Petrosino Square where the — in my opinion — illegally placed bike depot is a destination for speeding cyclists hurrying to dock their bikes by riding up the ramp, which was built for wheelchair access, and onto the sidewalk where pedestrians must walk?

And could the Department of Transportation please correct the situation by relocating the depot to across the street into the roadbed where it belongs? Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I want to avoid broken bones.

And by the way, Chop’t has never answered me in writing about the complaint I first made online, and then on paper, delivered by a pedestrian messenger, and finally in person in conversation with a manager in the newly opened Spring St. store, the complaint having been that their delivery man had cycled on the sidewalk of Spring St. at 12:24 p.m. on May 16.

But thanks to Cafe Habana for telling their deliverymen never to ride on the sidewalk while delivering for them.Minerva Durham

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